Manifesto on Architecture

I once knew Architecture is a simple thing where Architects design structures  to provide one specific need of a person. It is a shallow meaning that a kid could think of. My dad will watch this program about mega structures constructed in Dubai sometimes and the form of the structures caught my attention. It made me wonder if there were any deeper meaning of Architecture. It was also the reason why I took up this course. During my first year and half of the first term my understanding of Architecture did not change at all. Structures to me is something dull or just a shape that would provide a person shelter or a home. Then when the third term came, a lot of terms and meaning came in to my mind to redefine my meaning of Architecture. I thought to myself, think again, if you think Architecture is just any easy course where you have to think something simple/unique without a concept then you’re wrong. I learned that being an Architect is being serious in what you do and learning to put passion, dedication, and hard work in to your design. There is also a quote from my favourite game which is Final Fantasy where a guy says “unattainable dreams are the best kind” and the story ended where the main character reached his dream. It is kind of similar in reality and I would also think of this quote whenever I am giving up.

There are thousands of reasons, explanations, and terms that define Architecture and all of what I could think of before is the most basic definition and what most people define it. It didn’t felt unique like Architecture should be and I’m glad there are a lot of people in my course there to guide me. I don’t believe that anyone one can reach their dreams without the help of others because this why God created us for. You may be the Architect who designed that certain structure but behind it there are different professional people who helped you.

So far what I want to say is that “Architecture is an experience/emotion of the designer like any writer or painter” because it is like any other song/painting/poem it is just that in a form of a structure were we feel or understand when we look deeper in to its meaning. There are instances where we could see a replica of an old structure with few modifications and tell ourselves,” well it’s just copy, nothing is unique” but if we learn more about the designer we will know that it is very unique. This is what makes us designers unique and different to each other. Each of us had our own experience and emotion in to designing that building.

Architecture is  a connection or bond between things. It could be between you the designer and your client or it could be the connection of the structure to the client or the designer but it could be all that. Today from what I observed, Architecture is trying to further make structures that initiate social contact or possible social relationship with each other.  These structures are malls, condominiums, etc. If we also look in to the past we may not notice but there are similar structures with the same functions like these modern structures.

Architecture is innovation and evolution. This is something that came up to my mind when I took up my history of architecture classes. One good example would be renaissance period. They just improved the roman architecture which made it popular. We think that history is boring but actually it is where we also get our ideas from and we just improve it and add our own style in it. I want to be able to innovate architectural styles from the past and to mix a certain  part of myself to be able to achieve greatness.

These three meaning I gave is so far what I have observed or I would call it rather premature definition of Architecture because I am only at the beginning of the course and I have a lot of time to think, learn over,   to discover the true meaning and to give my real or improved answer to the question “What is  Architecture for me”.  For once I knew that finding a definition for something was very easy, Architecture taught me that it is very challenging and you have to have this experience to able to know him better hence defining Architecture.

As an architect, I want to design something that makes a relation between a person, the structure and nature.  There are not a lot of people who enjoy nature because there some designs that confine the person to the nature.I want to design a structure that brings the environment inside it. I think that it will add more beauty to the structure because nature itself is already beauty and what if I combine both structure and nature together.

I want to make it a habit to able to think outside of the box to able to impress people with my designs and to show them that is a unique design by me. I want to be able to continue learning to able to improve myself. Some successful Architects will say to you that Architecture is hard which is true and usually a way making you feel you want to quit.  Actually everything in life is hard because we make it hard but if we do the opposite by working hard enough, eventually it will become very rewarding just like in Architecture. If you also think you can excel in this field then keep on doing what you are doing right now which is to think of designs and to draw it.

We should  share our ideas with our fellow architects to able to improve ourselves. We should not shut ourselves from others because Architecture is an open language, we can speak through our buildings or houses we design.